Sport: MediaInducted: 2003 Country: USABorn: 1872, in Charleston, South CarolinaDied: August 1, 1939
In 1913 in the City of New York, Al Elias, with brother Walter, began what today
is known as the Elias Sports Bureau. The Elias Brothers and their Bureau's methods
of collection and presentation of statistics set the form and precedent for recording
baseball information, and influenced the universal collection and presentation
of other sports information.

In 1916, three years after the brothers opened shop selling baseball scorecards
featuring team and player statistics in saloons and haunts of baseball fans,
the New York Telegram began publishing the Elias' weekly
compilation of "batting and pitching averages". In 1919, the brothers
were appointed official statisticians for the National (Major) League and International
(minor) League (and later the American League).

In 1937, the Al Munro Elias Bureau took over publication of "The Little
Red Book", the official statistics journal of Major League Baseball. In
1938, the Bureau began producing The Pocket Cyclopedia of Major League
Baseball, and for many years published the official Green Book,
the National League's annual summary.

Al Elias died in 1938. Today's Elias Bureau, headed for more than 50 years by
Seymour Siwoff, also records statistics for the National Football League (NFL),
National Basketball Association (NBA) National Hockey League (NHL), Major League
Soccer MLS and Women’s National Basketball Association WNBA.